It's Like Riding A Bike Mate. You Never Forget. (or do you?)

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Lovacott

Über Member
Like most people, I realised I could ride a bike when my dad told me that I'd just gone ten yards without him holding onto the saddle.

Since then, no matter how long the hiatus, I have always managed to remember the basics of riding a bike.

But there are some things I had forgotten since I last did a regular commute over fifteen years ago.

The biggest lesson forgotten (for me) is gear discipline (which gear to select, when to select it).

I'm getting there now (after nine months on the same set of hills) and a lot of what I am doing now is what I did back then (that I seem to have forgotten about?).

I actually sat down last week and tried to play back a climb I used to do in the 1990's (Wembley Hill Road) and I couldn't remember my gear changes at first. But after about three replays, it kind of came back to me (either that, or my brain chose the gears for me based on my current choices?)

So the old saying "It's like riding a bike mate...." isn't strictly true is it?

Or is it?
 
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Deleted member 1258

Guest
I ride gears in the summer and fixed in the winter, its always noticeable that it takes 2 or 3 ride to get back in the swing of riding fixed after a summer on gears, and the same riding gears after a winter on fixed.
 
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Rusty Rocket

Active Member
Completely agree - I can jump on a bike after not riding for 10 years and peddle away. What I can’t do is ride it *well* - it takes practice and experience to get back into the swing of things, especially if you have a lot of gears it takes a while to work out what’s what again.
 

Once a Wheeler

…always a wheeler
Funnily enough, the title of this thread does not refer to cycling so much as to the psychology of learning. Cycling is used as the example because it is one that most people are familiar with. When we start learning anything, every part of the practice in question is an effort. Progressively we become more proficient until we no longer have to think about what we are doing — the practice has become automatic and our conscious mind concentrates on what it wants to achieve, not on the process of what is being done. Other common examples are speaking, reading, walking. Speaking is a particularly interesting case because most people regard the acquisition as permanent once proficiency has been achieved. However, a few genuine 'Robinson Crusoes' have been found who, after three years or so of isolation without anyone to talk to or any books to read, have lost the capacity to speak. Skills can disappear if they are not exercised.
 
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Lovacott

Lovacott

Über Member
Funnily enough, the title of this thread does not refer to cycling so much as to the psychology of learning. Cycling is used as the example because it is one that most people are familiar with. When we start learning anything, every part of the practice in question is an effort. Progressively we become more proficient until we no longer have to think about what we are doing — the practice has become automatic and our conscious mind concentrates on what it wants to achieve, not on the process of what is being done. Other common examples are speaking, reading, walking. Speaking is a particularly interesting case because most people regard the acquisition as permanent once proficiency has been achieved. However, a few genuine 'Robinson Crusoes' have been found who, after three years or so of isolation without anyone to talk to or any books to read, have lost the capacity to speak. Skills can disappear if they are not exercised.
Yep. But nobody ever says "it's like taking a wee" when describing something very easy.

It's always the bike riding analogy which is used when describing something which is a doddle.
 
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Lovacott

Lovacott

Über Member
A bike doesn't need multiple gears. So you didn't forget how to ride a bike.

[ @Once a Wheeler : there is a great film somewhere about a guy who learned to ride a reversed-steering bike. Took him months.
Then he couldn't ride a normal bike. At all ...]
There was this bloke who used to take a wonky bike to Ashton Court free festival in Bristol every year (latterly Bristol Community Festival, now defunct).

You pedalled backwards to go forwards and turned left to turn right.

If you could ride ten foot on his bike from a standing start, he'd pay you £100. All you had to stump up was 50p.

The bloke made an absolute killing.
 
I think I've heard of him ! (I've loads of friends and fs-of-fs in Bristol)
 
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Lovacott

Lovacott

Über Member
I think I've heard of him ! (I've loads of friends and fs-of-fs in Bristol)
It was 1994 when I last saw him there. I always had a go and my record distance was about 18" from start to finish.

He made it look easy by riding his bike around like a teenager on a BMX and there were no end of people lining up to get their easy £100. But I never saw anyone do it. Not even once.

It seems easy (pedal backward for forward, turn right for left) but it isn't.

It's a total mind £ukc.
 
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